A NATION CHALLENGED: PRISONERS

A NATION CHALLENGED: PRISONERS; Believed to Be a U.S. Citizen, Detainee Is Jailed in Virginia

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

Published: April 6, 2002

WASHINGTON, April 5—
A prisoner from the war in Afghanistan who is believed to be an American citizen was flown today to Norfolk, Va., from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and locked up in a jail there.

The military considers the man, Yasser Esam Hamdi, an enemy combatant, but officials said they did not yet know what to do with him. The Defense Department has retained custody of him, although officials said he could be turned over to the Justice Department.

But in order to move him to a civilian detention center, officials would have to charge him with a crime; it is not clear at this point what charges he might face. American investigators have not suggested that they have any statements from Mr. Hamdi or any evidence that may implicate him in particular activities, although he was first captured in November, along with John Walker Lindh of California, after a prison uprising near Mazar-i-Sharif. He was taken to Guantánamo on Feb. 11.

Officials said today that Mr. Hamdi's American citizenship was almost certain, complicating his case for the United States. The officials were still unsure whether he holds dual American-Saudi citizenship.

The military could keep Mr. Hamdi in custody and in theory could subject him to a court-martial, because the Uniform Code of Military Justice allows anyone, including American civilians, to be court-martialed if charged with war crimes.

Legal experts said his American citizenship would require the military to take him before a military magistrate within 48 hours of his imprisonment on American soil, although that could be done in secret.

This morning, the Pentagon dispatched a C-130 plane to the United States Naval Air Station at Guantánamo Bay, where he was being held, and flew him first to Dulles International Airport outside Washington and then to Norfolk. He was put in the brig at the Norfolk Naval Air Station around 3 p.m.

He could be transferred to the custody of the Justice Department. Officials said they were considering possible charges with the help of the guidelines they had prepared before they charged Mr. Lindh.

The charges in the Lindh case are conspiracy to kill Americans, providing support to terrorists and using destructive devices during crimes of violence.

The charges that fit within the guidelines, which the Justice Department said would apply to any American found fighting with the Taliban, include treason, which carries the death penalty; murder of American government employees, which carries a life term; providing material support or resources to terrorists, which carries a maximum of 15 years; and various conspiracy charges, which can also carry life terms.

General Tommy R. Franks, the commander of the military operations in Afghanistan, discussed Mr. Hamdi's situation briefly with reporters today but shed little light on it. ''I am not on the inside of the thinking about what the next step should be with this man,'' he said.

Asked why it took five months to figure out he was an American citizen, General Franks said, ''I think from the very beginning there was possibility in everyone's mind that he might be an American, because he spoke English.''